Incredible documentary about the exclusive brethren and their extreme shunning policy

Just watched this remarkable documentary about the exclusive brethren here in the UK. Their shunning policy is remarkably like Watchtowers policy except even more extreme. Its heartbreaking how families are torn apart by such man made policies based on their interpretation of scriptures. Everything mentioned such as emotional blackmail, depression, suicide and the rest. See Link below

I actually watched this documentary when my daughter came in. She actually showed a little interest in it whilst on her tablet. She asked what it was about. I explained and then popped in the point that, though not as extreme, we also have a similiar shunning policy. I didn't over do it, but mentioned to her that I disagreed with WT's current shunning policy. She just did her teen thing look and went back to her tablet.

Very interesting doc. Not only their shunning policy, but their language and doctrines are stunningly close to the JWS. (I don't see their shunning as more severe, just different.)

I had to say, got choked up seeing that young mother, with the infant and toddler, checking the pregnancy test whilst her 18YO fiance smoking while sitting next to baby. So sad for this child, really, trying to find love in her children, and so , so sad for the children. The whole image gave me a lump in my throat.

I did a bit of googling on their leader, John Nelson Darby (called the Father of Dispensationalism), and after reading the following information in several sources, have to wonder if CTR learned some of his terminology and thoughts from Darby, who by that time, had quite a reputation. The similarities in language are eerily similar, and dispensationalism is one of the foundations of Zionism, is it not?

New England - I didn't check the referenced map, but perhaps, Pennsylvania? Hmmmm....

[bold is mine]

He made at least 5 missionary journeys to North America between 1862 and 1877. He worked mostly in New England, Ontario, and theGreat Lakes region, but took one extended journey from Toronto to Sydney by way of San Francisco, Hawaii, and New Zealand.

I'm in a support group not for jw issues but someone else in the group asked about jws. I gave a short explanation emphasizing the dangers and how members are either ignorant of it or conditioned to think it is a good thing.

Afterwards we talked for some time. Her family grew up with the Exclusive Brethren but got out but had lingering problems. So here I am sharing experiences and feelings about shunning. Her sister committed suicide, her parents are no longer married, and her brother has more dark days that light. So I hooked her up and her family with a counselor that effectively helps such individuals and/or families.

Part of what is helping is knowing they are not alone being shunned and that there are people who are like me who have a good life apart from it.

We had this scary cult in my province - there are others. We learned about it when the father abducted the children and mother was fighting to bring them back to the USA. The cult actually moved away because of such issues - to New England.

The women of the Northeast Kingdom church in Island Pond wear babushkas. Their children are beaten with rods; the children are also forbidden to entertain fantasies. Members of the cult believe that we are living in the "end-times" and that only those living a sacrificial Christian life -- which is to say, them -- will survive; the rest of us will be consigned to the Lake of Fire. Jan has seen terrified children.

Cult children are not like other children. It's more than a matter of their not being allowed toys or coloring books. Their expressions are both vacant and watchful; they are preter- naturally grave. The old house, the silent children, re- minded me -- though I am not given to hysteria -- of a scene from Village of the Damned.

The state, he said, acted on these specific allegations, obtained during child custody hearings and from affidavits from former church members:A named four-year-old was hit fifteen to twenty times for imagining that a block of wood was a truck.A named seven-year-old was stripped naked by several persons besides her father for asking for more food. The spanking went on until her bottom bled.A named three-and-a-half-year-old boy was "disciplined" until his neck bled.A named thirteen-year-old girl was stripped to her underpants and hit with a rod for being deceitful. She had as a result more than eighty welts.A named eleven-year-old was hit with a two-by-four for laughing at a church member, receiving a large blister and bruise.According to Burchard's document, sworn statements by witnesses and victims attest to these acts of brutality; in several instances, photographic evidence exists.